Golf

Jon Rahm approaches world ranking podium

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The Spanish Jon Rahm rises this week to fourth place in the world golf ranking, overtaking the American Patrick Cantlay who drops to fifth.

Jon Rahm, ranking

The podium remains with the Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy (8.36 average points), the American Scottie Scheffler (8.22) and the Australian Cameron Smith (7.29). Rahm is 7.12 and Cantlay is 7.06.

After Rahm, the Chilean Joaquín Niemann (position 22, 3.21), the Mexican Abraham Ancer (34, 2.41), the Chilean Guillermo ‘Mito’ Pereira (45, 2.05), the Spanish Adrián Otaegui (73, 1.49) appear in the top 100. ), Pablo Larrazábal (77, 1.47) and Adri Arnaus (82, 1.45), the Colombian Sebastián Muñoz (86, 1.41) and the Argentine Emiliano Grillo (89, 1.39).

He attended Arizona State University and won 11 varsity tournaments, second only to Phil Mickelson who earned 16 titles. In 2015 he participated as an amateur at the Phoenix Open, finishing fifth [4]. On April 1, he took first place in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and held it for 25 weeks, then regained the position to hold it for another 35 weeks. He thus qualified for the U.S. Open and the Open Championship the following year: in the first of the two tournaments he finished twenty-third, then turned professional, at the same time losing the right to play in the Open.

The Quicken Loans National was his first professional event and he finished third. The Canadian Open instead saw him finish second. At the end of the season he obtained a card for the 2017 PGA Tour. Rahm found his first success in the Farmers Insurance Open thanks to an eagle on the last hole, managing to enter the major tournaments on the world scene. At the Mexico Championship, an event in the World Golf Championships series, he finished third, two shots behind the winner Dustin Johnson, while in the second event, the Dell Technologies Match Play, he lost the final against Johnson himself [7]. He later won the Irish Open and the final tournament of the European Tour season, the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai, by six strokes, also winning the rookie of the year award.

He started 2018 with a second place at the Tournament of Champions, still behind Dustin Johnson, but then came the triumph at the CareerBuilder Challenge with which he reached the second position in the ranking: followed by the one at the Spanish Open and the one at the 2018 Ryder Cup together with the european team. He finished the year by also obtaining the title at the Hero World Challenge in December. In 2019 came success at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and third place at the U.S. open. He then came back to win the Irish Open and defended his title at the Spanish Open. In the season finale he triumphed again at the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai, thus finishing first in the Race to Dubai and becoming the European Tour’s Golfer of the Year.

In the year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to the title of the Memorial Tournament he becomes first in the world rankings, the second Spaniard in history to do so after Severiano Ballesteros. In August he also won the BMW Championship, beating Dustin Johnson in the playoffs. In June 2021 he was forced to abandon the Memorial Tournament, where he was leading with a gap of six strokes at the end of the third lap, due to a positive test for COVID-19. However, his first triumph in a major arrived on 20 June, at the U.S. Open, thanks to two birdies in the last two holes. In July he finished third in the Open Championship tied with Louis Oosthuizen.

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